2nd June to 10th June Wellington to Waitomo Caves

It was dark and difficult to get our bearings and it took a while to find our campsite in the suburbs of Wellington. The campsite roadsigns took us round in circles for about half an hour in the town called Lower Hutt.

We woke up late in the morning as the day was windy, cold and grey. We drove towards Wellington, which we could see on the other side of the natural harbour.

It took around 10 minutes by car to drive there on the first proper motorway we'd been on since being in New Zealand.

We drove through Wellington and through to Lyall Bay, south west of the city, and to the coast with the Tasman Sea. Lyall Bay is well known locally for its surf scene. We weren't disappointed, as there was around 3ft cleanish waves. The best place, where most of the surfers were situated, was close to the airport runway, where large rocks protecting the runway had been placed. It seemed very strange that people were surfing only around 200 metres away from a very busy runway.

Afterwards, we drove back to Wellington to find somewhere to park, which is always difficult in a big city. However, we found a good location (for free) in Oriental Bay which sits further along from Wellington's main harbour.

The walk from Oriental Beach.Bay is the ideal location for looking at Wellington's skyline. The walk takes you along past the beach, restaurants and the Te Papa, the national museum.

We found the Post Restante where we were expected to find some post from back home. We had no trouble receiving these packages as they had been sitting in the post office for some weeks.

As usual, it's very difficult to find somewhere to eat in a big city. It's not that there isn't the choice, it's that there's too much choice, and you always think you're gonna find a better place around the next corner. We must have spent around 2 hours just looking for somewhere (of value). Eventually we came across a fish mongers that also served fish and chips. There was plenty of choice and in the end we went for Blue Cod and Vik also had 3 battered Scallops. It's amazing that in the fish shops, you can get everything battered, including Scallops! Must admit they would probably taste nicer not battered.

It was getting late, so we made our way back to the van and drove back to Lower Hutt and did some chores before 'hitting the sack.'

It was like deja vous the next day. We drove back to Lyall Bay, but there weren't any surfers that day. The sea was rough and choppy. We drove back to Oriental Bay again and parked up.

We planned to spend the afternoon in Te Papa. The building reminded us of the inside of the Tate Modern, with vast expanse of space and light. It's actually a modern building that's been designed to withstand earthquakes. It's suspended on rubber pillars.NZ sits between two plates and regularly has earthquakes. In fact, there's been around 5 earthquakes since we've been here, although we've not been close enough to the source to feel them.

We spent around 3 hours looking at the exhibitions on volcanoes, earthquakes and the natural habitat of NZ, before having to leave for food.

We ate Turkish food at a local 'posh' kebab restaurant, which NZ have plenty of, before returning to back to the van and back to the campsite.

It was our 3rd day in Wellington and for once it was sunny, so we had full use of the morning before leaving Wellington. We parked in our usual spot and headed for the cable car that takes you up the hill behind the city. It took us ages to find it as the entrance was hidden in an arcade, and it wasn't very well sign posted. This seemed strange as it's one of Wellington's main tourist attractions - which is seen on every postcard of Wellington.

We took the cable car, which was really an old venicular tram, up the hill to the botanical gardens that overlooks the city and harbour. (See Pics)

After returning back down into the city. we went to Levi's shop, as Vik wanted some jeans (as it's cold). People were whispering in the shop and looking at a couple of large blokes. We assumed these burly guys must have been famous rugby players.

We left Wellington late afternoon and headed north west to Wanganui for an overnight stop. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find a very attractive old town, apparently it's the second oldest town in New Zealand.

We grabbed some Chinese takeaway before going to the original Art Deco cinema to see Sex and the City. Carl was one of only 4 men in the cinema! T'was really good.

We thought that Wanganui deserved another look around, especially during daylight, so before we left we went back into town for another look around. Admittedly, most of this time was spent looking for a public toilet!

We thought we would take a detour on the way to New Plymouth. We liked the sound of the excitingly named "bridge to nowhere", so we came off the main road and headed deep into Whanganui National Park. As with most roads in NZ, they start off as reputable roads, which have tarmac and white lines, then suddenly the tarmacked road just ends without warning and turns into gravel.

The condition of the road deteriorated as it became narrow and winding through the rainforest, but as it had taken us an hour to get to this point, we didn't want to return the same way.

We eventually arrived at Pipirika, after driving through townships (hamlets) named Jerusalem and London (which amused us). Pipirika was nothing but a few farms and a DoC office. We asked the guy at the office where the 'hauntingly' positioned bridge was. He told us that it was either a 3 day hike through the rainforest or a jetboat ride along the river.

So, after realising we'd kinda wasted our time driving deep into the national park, we had a quick lunch and took the road that would take us as quickly our of the park as possible. Unfortunately, it was in the wrong direction to where we wanted to go.

As we left the park, we had the most amazing view looking down onto the central Plateau, with Mt. Ruapehu standing tall and alone in the centre. The volcanic, snow-capped mountain was where we intended to go skiing/boarding in July.

We stayed in Ohakune, a small ski resort. We spent the evening talking to an Auckland guy who had come down to get seasonal work on the ski shuttle buses.

Before setting off the next day, we pre-booked days in July for our return. It was going to be the school holidays, so it was a bit lucky that we had stayed at Ohakune.

To get back on track of our original route, we needed to go directly west, back to the coast and to New Plymouth where Mt. Egmont national Park is situated.

Instead of heading back down to Wanganui then back up north, which is where the main highway goes, we took a more direct route instead. The road was called "the Forgotten World Highway". The name speaks for itself. Not only was the rainforest and the landscape almost completely devoid of human inhabitants, the road had also been forgotten (even though it''s considered a major highway). The weather was seriously depressing, endless rain that wouldn't give. The road took us through a Jurassic looking landscape, where rocks had fallen from the shear cliffs and into the road. Occasionally, as well as having to avoid fallen rocks in the gravel road, we also had to slowly make our through deep mud.

After about 4 hours driving, we left the 'Jurassic Jungle' and dinosaurs behind, and entered civilisation at a town called Stratford. Although, as it was a Saturday, the town was deserted. The only place open was a Subway, which was a good place for lunch.

It was still raining when we arrived and it seemed it was here for the day. Vik's cheap trainers that she got at K-Mart in Oz, were now really worn and letting in water, so grudgingly Vik thought about getting some new shoes. We found a really small shopping centre, which was great because it was dry, and looked for some new shoes. Carl bought some more thermal vests in preparation for our skiing trip.

The next day, the weather had improved by mid morning and we saw for the first time, the impressive snow capped volcano Taranaki (Mt. Egmont). We drove around the coast and around the volcano, passing townships called, Oakura and Opunake, which is one of the main surf scenes in the area.

We made our way into the national park surrounding Taranaki, and up to the snowline of the volcano. We were able to see Mt. Ruapehu, some 150km away. In the north island the land is generally quite flat (compared to the south island) and the only mountains you can see are the volcanoes.

Our next stop was Waitomo Caves, around 2 and a half hours north along the coast and slightly inland. It felt like a long journey as we were running low on fuel. There were hardly any townships and where there were, there was only a few houses and farms. It was a case of free-wheeling down the hills.

We finally found a petrol station about an hour into the journey, and we got to Waitomo Caves around lunch time. Waitomo Caves is a tourist spot.There isn't much there in terms of a town, but what is does exist is mostly only for the tourists visiting the caves.

It was a sunny day, so we spent the afternoon doing chores and checking out which caves we wanted to see. In the evening we borrowed a torch from the campsite and did a walk through small tunnel caves and around a river where glow worms could be found.

The glow worms are fascinating creatures that start their lives as larvae and live in hammocks. This is the stage that they glow, so to attract insects to eat. They capture these in silk threads that hang down around them. When the larvae matures, they become flies, flies without mouths! Their sole purpose is to procreate (bit like May Fly), then they die after about 2/3 days. Seems a bit pointless, but they're great to see anyway.

It was another sunny day, so we returned to where the glow worms were and did the Waitomo Walk, that took us back to the town via farm land. It was nice looking down on the town, and we were accompanied by a Fan-tail who sat next to us on the fence. According to Maori folklore, they are considered messengers, which seems right as they constantly talk to you.

While we were back in town we booked a 2 tour package to see the Ruakuri Cave and the Glow worm Cave. The Ruakuri Cave got its name from the Maori's that found a pack of wild dogs living in the entrance to the cave.

We were the only ones on the tour, so the guy guiding us gave us as long as we wanted. It was a dry cave and warmer than the outside temperature. A lot of the caves at Waitomo have water, and some need to be entered by abseiling into them. Obviously a lot more fun, but a lot more expensive.

Luckily the cave was right by where we had left the van, so we had another look at the glow worms and at the Wetas. Our guide had told us that the Wetas can be found sheltering at sunset in the little caves. Wetas are a cross between a cockroach and a cricket, but bigger! The Giant Wetas are considered the heaviest insects in the world, weighing similar to a swallow. They're pretty horrible to look at and even their name Weta means "Ugly creature" in Maori. We did actually find a couple. (See pics)

It was an early get up as we'd booked ourselves on the glow worm tour for 9am. The first part of the tour took us into a large cathedral cave where the acoustics were so good that many people had performed there, such as Sting. The second part of the tour took us along an underground river by boat. We laid down and looked at the cave ceiling and saw hundreds of glow worms. It was just like looking up at the sky at night.